Piper Laurie By Susan King Piper Laurie has been reflecting on her career of late, a career that has careened from B-movie "bimbo" roles to Oscar nominations — not to mention that bag full of condoms she once scored as a budding starlet. Though she was painfully shy, Laurie knew at a young age that she wanted to act. At 15, she joined an acting class in Hollywood, lying about her age to get in. For the next three years, "I worked my butt off," says Laurie, who recently participated in the Women in Film Legacy Series for UCLA's Film and Television Archive and just completed her biography, "Learning to Live Out Loud," which is set for publication next year. "I was going to New York." But New York was put on hold when somebody from Universal spotted her in class, and soon Laurie was auditioning for the studio, then known more for low-end movies than prestige pictures. "They decided to make a screen test, and I thought, 'I am going to get to do some fine work,' " she recalls. "And I'm going to get paid for it too. I didn't realize I was being signed in a place where they made program pictures. I didn't understand that," says the gracious 78-year-old, relaxing in her comfortable Hollywood Hills home decorated with her own abstract sculptures. Continue reading this story RELATED:  Hollywood Walk of Fame

Piper Laurie By Susan King Piper Laurie has been reflecting on her career of late, a career that has careened from B-movie "bimbo" roles to Oscar nominations — not to mention that bag full of condoms she once scored as a budding starlet. Though she was painfully shy, Laurie knew at a young age that she wanted to act. At 15, she joined an acting class in Hollywood, lying about her age to get in. For the next three years, "I worked my butt off," says Laurie, who recently participated in the Women in Film Legacy Series for UCLA's Film and Television Archive and just completed her biography, "Learning to Live Out Loud," which is set for publication next year. "I was going to New York." But New York was put on hold when somebody from Universal spotted her in class, and soon Laurie was auditioning for the studio, then known more for low-end movies than prestige pictures. "They decided to make a screen test, and I thought, 'I am going to get to do some fine work,' " she recalls. "And I'm going to get paid for it too. I didn't realize I was being signed in a place where they made program pictures. I didn't understand that," says the gracious 78-year-old, relaxing in her comfortable Hollywood Hills home decorated with her own abstract sculptures. Continue reading this story RELATED:  Hollywood Walk of Fame (American Cinematheque)

Piper Laurie By Susan King Piper Laurie has been reflecting on her career of late, a career that has careened from B-movie "bimbo" roles to Oscar nominations — not to mention that bag full of condoms she once scored as a budding starlet. Though she was painfully shy, Laurie knew at a young age that she wanted to act. At 15, she joined an acting class in Hollywood, lying about her age to get in. For the next three years, "I worked my butt off," says Laurie, who recently participated in the Women in Film Legacy Series for UCLA's Film and Television Archive and just completed her biography, "Learning to Live Out Loud," which is set for publication next year. "I was going to New York." But New York was put on hold when somebody from Universal spotted her in class, and soon Laurie was auditioning for the studio, then known more for low-end movies than prestige pictures. "They decided to make a screen test, and I thought, 'I am going to get to do some fine work,' " she recalls. "And I'm going to get paid for it too. I didn't realize I was being signed in a place where they made program pictures. I didn't understand that," says the gracious 78-year-old, relaxing in her comfortable Hollywood Hills home decorated with her own abstract sculptures. Continue reading this story RELATED:  Hollywood Walk of Fame